36 DIGS.NET
| 10.29.2021
L E G E N D S | V A U X L E V I C O M T E
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HE CURRENT consensus for what
might qualify as a "chateau" in the
modern era, at least in this country, is
likely to be something on the quaint
and charming side—a little place in the country,
with a manageable garden and a cupola-
crowned outbuilding. Nice, but of dramatically
lesser scale than the chateaus that 17th century
wealth and power in France produced. None
grander than Vaux-le-Vicomte, or its ambitious
benefactor Nicolas Fouquet, King Louis XIV's
superintendent of finances.
Before Fouquet fell victim to political scheming
and was arrested on trumped-up embezzlement
charges by d'Artagnan, captain of the king's
musketeers, he was one of the most powerful
men in France and an important patron of high
culture. He envisioned a chateau that represented
the sum of his political and artistic striving. It
would be splendored and ornamented, with
magnificent gardens overflowing with pools,
fountains, and classical statuary of mythical
figures. One sees in the chateau's regal stone-
clad edifice, its lush and expressive landscape,
the brightness of Fouquet's eyes and the stirrings
of his imagination. One must also recognize the
day's most illustrious talent that brought the
whole thing into being: the king's first architect,
Louis Le Vau; landscape architect, André Le
Nôtre; and painter Charles Le Brun.
The new tome Vaux Le Victome: A Private
Invitation (Flammarion) by Guillaume Picon,
with a fanciful foreword by Christian Lacroix,
tells the tale—a fantastic one—that begins
WHILE DETAILED AND ORNATE, THE ESTATE'S MAJESTIC WROUGHT-IRON DO NOT ENCROACH ON THE
ARCHITECTURE; MASTER OF HIS DOMAIN, ALEXANDRE DE VOGÜÉ IN THE ENTRANCE HALL AT VAUX-LE-VICOMTE.
